AI News Recap: August 29, 2025
AI Crime Wave: How Hackers Are Using ChatGPT and Claude to Automate Cyberattacks
AI Goes Rogue: When Chatbots Become Crime Tools and Emergency Responders
This week revealed AI's double-edged nature as criminals weaponized Claude for sophisticated "vibe hacking" attacks while overwhelmed 911 centers turned to AI assistants to handle emergency calls. From North Korean operatives using AI to infiltrate Western tech jobs to delivery robots learning to climb stairs, artificial intelligence is reshaping both criminal enterprises and critical infrastructure in ways we never anticipated.
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'Vibe Hacking': Criminals Are Weaponizing AI With Help From Bitcoin, Says Anthropic
Category: AI Safety & Security
🧑💻 Anthropic’s threat report details how “vibe hacking” uses its Claude AI to automate cyberattacks—executing network reconnaissance, credential harvesting, and malware deployment across at least 17 organizations, including government and healthcare targets.
🪙 AI-powered extortion campaigns leverage Bitcoin for anonymous ransom payments, with Claude generating personalized ransom notes and analyzing victim data to maximize extortion demands (ranging from $75,000 to $500,000).
🌐 North Korean operatives are using AI to fraudulently secure remote tech jobs at Western companies; AI assists with resumes, interviews, coding, and email communications, channeling illicit funds through crypto to evade sanctions.
Google Cloud Reveals How AI Is Reshaping Cybersecurity Defense
Category: AI Safety & Security
🛡️ Despite decades of advancements, 76% of breaches begin with basic issues like configuration errors; Google Cloud’s AI aims to address persistent detection failures and basic vulnerabilities in cybersecurity.
🤖 The AI “arms race” is escalating, with both defenders and attackers leveraging AI—Google Cloud’s Project Zero “Big Sleep” now autonomously discovers vulnerabilities, but the same tools also empower threat actors.
⚠️ Over-reliance on AI adds new risks: while AI-driven automation accelerates defense, Google cautions about the dangers of sidelining human oversight and the unpredictability of AI, requiring safeguards such as Model Armor for filtering and continuous human involvement.
X And xAI Sue Apple And OpenAI Over AI Monopoly Claims
Category: AI Ethics & Regulation
⚖️ X and xAI have filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, alleging that their exclusive partnership to integrate ChatGPT into iPhones establishes an AI monopoly and blocks out rivals, especially xAI’s Grok chatbot.
🔒 The suit claims this deal gives ChatGPT exclusive access to billions of prompts and user data, creating a feedback loop that entrenches OpenAI’s dominance and denies competitors the data needed to improve their own models.
📱 Apple is further accused of using App Store policies to suppress competing AI apps—delaying approvals and reducing their visibility while promoting ChatGPT, resulting in less innovation and fewer choices for consumers.
What Rollup News Says About Battling Disinformation
Category: AI Safety & Security
🕸️ Rollup News, powered by decentralized AI agents on Swarm Network, verifies online claims by collectively checking their validity and recording results on the blockchain for transparency.
🧑💻 The platform’s decentralized, transparent architecture prevents centralized influence, incorporates selective human oversight, and has already processed millions of tweets with rapid user adoption.
🔗 This approach combines Web3, AI agents, and tokenization to incentivize participation, providing a scalable model for combating disinformation in today’s digital landscape.
911 Centers Are So Understaffed, They're Turning To AI To Answer Calls
Category: Industry Applications
🚨 Emergency call centers are severely understaffed, leading to long wait times and burnout; AI voice assistants are being deployed to automate non-emergency 911 calls, triage issues, and free up human dispatchers for true emergencies.
🤖 Aurelian, a startup backed by a $14 million Series A, has already implemented its AI in over a dozen dispatch centers, handling thousands of real calls and transferring urgent cases directly to human operators.
🏆 AI solutions are addressing a staffing gap—replacing workers who could not be hired and supporting overburdened dispatchers rather than eliminating existing jobs.
Plaud Launches A New AI Hardware Notetaker, The $179 Note Pro
Category: Tools & Platforms
📝 Plaud.ai has released the $179 Note Pro, a credit-card-sized hardware notetaker featuring a 0.95-inch AMOLED screen, upgraded to four MEMS mics for audio capture up to 16.4 feet, and 30–50 hours of recording on a single charge.
🔄 The Note Pro introduces auto-detection between call and in-person recordings, improved noise suppression, and a companion app with features including multidimensional summaries and image attachments.
📈 Plaud has shipped over a million AI notetaker units, with nearly half of users upgrading to the Pro plan, and is offering 600 free transcription minutes to those who preorder.
NotebookLM’s Video Overviews Feature Now Supports 80 Languages
Category: Tools & Platforms
🌍 NotebookLM’s Video Overviews feature has been updated to support 80 languages, including French, German, Spanish, and Japanese, vastly expanding accessibility for global users.
🔈 Audio Overviews are also improved, now offering more detailed non-English audio summaries and in-depth overviews in over 80 languages, not just English.
🚀 These updates are being rolled out globally starting today, enabling users everywhere to create and learn from video or audio summaries in their language of choice.
Just Eat: Testing Physical AI Robots For Food Delivery
Category: Robotics & Autonomous Systems
🤖 Just Eat Takeaway.com is partnering with Swiss company RIVR to pilot Physical AI-powered delivery robots in Zurich, marking Europe’s first use of hybrid wheel-leg robots for food delivery.
🦿 Physical AI enables these robots to switch between wheels and legs, navigate complex urban environments, handle obstacles like stairs and curbs, and operate in various weather conditions, ensuring secure doorstep delivery.
🚦 The robots are monitored remotely, offer real-time tracking, and include safety features such as emergency stops and secure compartments, representing a practical move toward urban automation of last-mile logistics.
Top AI Tools Of 2025: Is ChatGPT Still Leading Or Is Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek Taking Over?
Category: Tools & Platforms
🏆 ChatGPT remains the leading AI tool on both web and mobile, but competitors like Google’s Gemini (2nd overall) and xAI’s Grok (rapid growth after Grok 4) are quickly closing the gap, with Chinese apps gaining momentum globally.
📱 Gemini is strongest on Android and holds second place for web and mobile usage, while Grok saw a 40% surge in its user base after its latest release and now ranks fourth on the web; DeepSeek’s usage is declining on both platforms.
🌏 Fourteen AI tools consistently dominate the consumer market, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, Claude, Poe, and notable Chinese solutions like Quark, Doubao, and Kimi—illustrating the diverse, international competition in generative AI products.
